Inside Out

48" x 36" acrylic on canvas

Inside out, “inside the box”, “outside the box”—it’s all about your relative comfort; mine compared to yours. If you’re thinking or doing something that is out of the ordinary, not your ‘usual’, you’re outside your box and often feeling some discomfort. Your ‘outside the box’ might be entirely inside the box for another, who doing the same, may have no discomfort at all! When you’re attempting something outside your own box, you feel exposed, like your inside is out, on display for all to see and judge. That’s always the case with art—you’re daring to expose yourself. It requires even more courage to paint an abstract, where your internal self might be quite unconsciously portrayed, and viewers draw their own conclusion. You may never know, good or bad. Still, I think it better to take a risk and grow than to play it safe and not explore or learn.